Don Friesen
It's been thirty-five years since I saw the play, Waiting for Godot, and so I don't remember much, except that the play took an interminable length of time to communicate very little! Waiting for Godot was written by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), an Irishman writing in French, the play written around 1948 and debuting in 1953. In a poll of 800 playwrights, actors, directors and journalists, it was voted the most significant English language play of the twentieth century. (Berlin, N., "Traffic of our Stage: Why Waiting for Godot?" in The Massachusetts Review, Autumn 1999)
The play features two primary actors who spend the entire play near a tree where they are expecting to meet someone named Godot. They wait in vain, however, for Godot never shows. The two fellows waiting for him know him as an acquaintance, but they admit that they would not recognise him were they to see him. In the meantime they pass the time as best they can in arguing, eating, sleeping, quarrelling, swapping hats, and playing games.
Vivian Mercier (1919-1989), an Irish literary critic, described Waiting for Godot as a play which "has achieved a theoretical impossibility – a play in which nothing happens, but that nonetheless keeps audiences glued to their seats. (Vivian Mercier, "The Uneventful Event," The Irish Times, 18 February 18, 1956) A play in which nothing happens – a forerunner of Seinfeld, I suppose – except these two fellows feel that nothing is a thing that has to be done and so they spend the rest of the two-act play doing it!
Samuel Beckett's play is considered an offering from the Theatre of the Absurd, and the play teases its audience not only with the possibility of Godot's arrival, but with the possibility that this play, and perhaps life, has meaning. The play has several Christian references; for example, the two characters discuss repentance, particularly in relation to the two thieves crucified alongside Jesus. They cry, "We're saved!" on more than one occasion when they feel that Godot may be near. One of them reminisces about the colourful maps of the Holy Land in his childhood Bible, and about his plans to honeymoon by the Dead Sea. One character describes God as having a white beard, and Godot is also purported to sport a white beard. The tree at which the two characters wait may or may not represent the Tree of Life, or, indeed, the Cross.
If Beckett's play teases its audience, Beckett himself continued to tease the literary critics and scholars, giving nary a clue as to what his play means. I take some satisfaction that even the absurd is not exempt from parody. Sesame Street's Monsterpiece Theater included a segment called "Waiting for Elmo," in which Grover and Telly Monster await Elmo – who never appears – while they stand by a tree bemoaning the interminable wait. The tree, citing the nonsensical nature of the play, uproots and leaves, wondering why they couldn't have done the musical, Oklahoma!
John the Baptist: Are You Coming, or not?
Beckett's play came to mind as I was reflecting upon our Gospel text. John the Baptist is now in prison, and John sends a delegation to Jesus with a question: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (Matthew 11:3) It almost sounds like a plaintive child's question: "Are you coming, or not?!?" John, the Baptist, was locked up tightly in the fortress of Machaerus, high on a stark promontory overlooking the Dead Sea. The Arabic name (Al-Mashnaqah) for this fortress means "The Gallows," and indeed, this is where John would meet his death. Sitting in his tiny cell, cut off from his friends and his community, John may have been entertaining doubts about Jesus.
John had announced that the One coming after him would bring fiery judgement, pitchfork in one hand and an axe in the other, but as reports of Jesus' ministry filtered back to Machaerus John may have begun to wonder. Where was the fire? Is he going to bring fire, or not?!? John was expecting words of warning and judgement from the Messiah, but the reports coming back to him emphasized love and peace!
Perhaps John was expecting something spectacular – spectacular in the manner of Isaiah, whose words inspired high expectations; Isaiah expected ...
John felt a keen need for the Old Testament prophecy – that the Messiah would come – to be fulfilled, for they were living in dark times, under Roman occupation, victims of corruption and injustice. People had come out to the wilderness to hear John because they were parched for a word of hope. They were eager for change. John may have become impatient, for several reasons, not least of which was that he expected Herod's executioners to arrive soon to remove his head! Perhaps John had been waiting expectantly for the God of thunder to strike with shock and awe, only to end up waiting for Godot, who not only didn't strike, but failed to appear!
Is Jesus the Messiah? A year or so has gone by. Large crowds are following Jesus. His ministry is growing – and yet Rome is still in charge and the Messiah had not struck down the enemies of God. Is Jesus the one, or isn't he?!? Jesus, in response to John's question, refused to give a straightforward "yes" or "no," pointing instead to the fruits of his labour, and then deflecting the question with questions of his own about John, asking the crowds, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What ...did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What ...did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet." (Matthew 11:7-9)
God's Mystery, and Signs of the Kingdom
Jesus' response to John's question is enigmatic. It's on point, in terms of being about the Messiah, and the forerunner of the Messiah, but his reply seems more tantalizing than declarative or definitive. He could have been a playwright!
There is about Jesus, and about God's appearances an ephemeral quality, which isn't altogether unfortunate. After all, there is much about God that remains a mystery to us. It also prompts us to wrestle with the nature of God, and the identity of Christ. The questions Jesus posed to the crowds sound like questions that could help us clarify who Jesus is. You might paraphrase them in this way:
Did Jesus fail to come when you rubbed the lantern?
There is about Jesus an enigmatic quality. Remember the incident at the end of Luke's gospel, when Jesus falls in alongside two of his disciples, neither of whom recognize him. (Luke 24:13-35) This is the incognito Christ, reminiscent of the occasion when Abraham and Sarah extended exceptional hospitality to three travelling strangers, unaware that these strangers were emissaries of God! (Genesis 18)
Incidents like these prompted the writer of Hebrews to encourage us to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so "some have entertained angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:2) Some "have entertained angels unawares." (RSV) Incidents like these also bring to mind Jesus' words in Matthew 25, where those who gave a cup of cold water to a stranger discover to their astonishment that it was Christ who was the recipient of their generosity. The person with whom they clothed, or fed, or visited in prison, was none other than our Lord! (Matthew 25:31-46) It's a theme echoed in some of our hymns:
(Hymnal: A Worship Book, #594)
He comes to us as one unknown,
He comes when souls in silence lie...
(Hymnal: A Worship Book, #498)
These signs are very tangible, as, of course, was the incarnation. That the God of mystery would come to us in tangible form is in itself a mystery, but these things will be signs of God's arrival, and when God arrives, says our psalm:
Meanwhile we wait, and as our reading from James counsels, it is best to be patient while we wait. Some things cannot be rushed. "Wait patiently for the Master's arrival," writes James. "You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that," he writes. (James 5:7-8, MSG)
Waiting for the kingdom of God to come requires patience. A paraphrase of Romans 8:24 reads: "Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant (woman). We are enlarged in the waiting." (MSG) A provocative paraphrase. Waiting for the kingdom of God to come is not unlike the patient waiting required during pregnancy, which is not a passive waiting. The nine months of waiting may seem like forever, but while waiting there is a nursery to prepare, clothes to buy, names to choose, books on pregnancy to read, classes to take, and so on. Similarly the kingdom of God requires us to do more than that done by those who waited for Godot. It requires active waiting, doing our part to help the kingdom emerge.
The patience of which James speaks also requires no small amount of trust. Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) tells of meeting a group of South African trapeze artists at a circus in Freiburg. It led to a long friendship as well as a lesson in faith. The trapeze artists told Nouwen that there is a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze, a relationship governed by important rules. For example, the flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches. As the flyer swings on the trapeze high above the crowd, the moment comes when he must let go. He flings his body out in mid-air, his job to keep flying and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to take hold of him at just the right moment. Nouwen was told, "The flyer must never try to catch the catcher." The flyer's job is to wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait. (Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of his Final Year, 1998, pages 74ff)
We too must wait, in patience and in trust, for God to redeem the world. Scripture tells us that "those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, ...mount up with wings like eagles, ...run and not be weary, walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31) AMEN
...that the desert would blossom!
Well, the desert remained blossom-less, the blind remained blind, the lame leapt only at their peril, those without speech remained mute, and water remained in short supply, in the wilderness and elsewhere!
...that the eyes of the blind would open!
...that the lame would begin to leap like deer!
...that those without speech would find a voice!
...that water would appear in the wilderness, streams in the desert! (Isaiah 35:1, 5-6)
Then perhaps Jesus is not a genie!
Did Jesus fail to punish your enemies?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a soldier!
Did Jesus fail to make everything run smoothly?
Then perhaps Jesus is not Mr. Fix-It!
Our inadequate estimations of Jesus draw us deeper into who Jesus is, and therefore who we are.
Lord, you sometimes speak in whispers,
There is about the entire Trinity this mysterious quality, and yet our readings from Scripture are quite specific as to what to watch for when Jesus comes again. Jesus told John's emissaries, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them." (Matthew 11:4-6) This is tangible stuff. The blind will know when they are able to see again! I will know when I can hear again! Jesus' answer is reminiscent of the Isaiah passage, which, in addition to all that flourishing productivity out in the arid desert, also promises that "weak hands" will be strengthened, that "feeble knees" will be made firm, that the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the tongue of the speechless shall sing for joy! (Isaiah 35:3, 5-6) Our reading from the psalms similarly promises "justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, uplifting assistance for those who are bowed down, and God's own attention to the stranger, the orphan and the widow...." (Psalm 146:7-9)
still and small and scarcely heard....
A breath unseen, unheard....
Half seen upon the inward eye....
The Lord will reign forever,
Advent Invites a Patient Trust in God
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 146:10)
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.